oh, man. I can feel the fever coming on.

On my facebook, my contacts have been talking about firing up their incubators, here at BYC there's incubator and hatching talk. Oh man oh man, I can feel the incubating fever begin to rise. Oh boy oh boy ohboy!!! Even the kids have been talking about maybe wanting to incubate again!!

We'd like to hatch:
ducks
EE
Silkies
Bantan barred cochin
any other bantam cochin
some production breeds
quail

I have 3 Hovabators (1602N), and 2 Genesis Hovabators in the mail, as i intend to substitute these for 1 of my "wafer style" Hovabators. Right now i have 16 eggs in the process of hatching, 36 eggs enter lockdown tomorrow, another 12 enter lockdown on saturday, and then i get 7 more dozen eggs to start for the next 3 weeks. This is going to be a big year for me as well..

#1- I intend to grow a HUGE flock of Blue Laced Red Wyandottes, setting some of my own eggs (mid summer through the rest of the year) as well as continually be hatching Lots and Lots of eggs for people in Portland.

#2- My second goal is a bit presumptuous: With 2 Hovabators (with ciruclating fans) , and 2 Genesis Hovabators, i intend to hatch 1,000+ eggs in 2011. My potential (capacity) with 3 egg turners is 108 eggs each run (36 eggs x 3 bators.) If i get a average of a %60 hatch rate (which is easily attainable with local eggs, and careful incubating), that means i would hatch about 65-70 chicks every 21 days, and 65 chicks x the potential 17 runs you can have in a year (365/21=about 17 cycles) = 1105 chicks. So yeah, this one is the REAL goal.. Its gonna be hard, but im gonna try!!